Cotto, Yankee Stadium Hit a Homerun!

It was a historic evening at Yankee Stadium, and man was it a thrill!

I’ve shot hundreds of fights, but this was the first stadium fight I’ve shot and being a life-long Yankee fan made it even better. After spending the entire day at the Stadium on Friday, I returned on Saturday to get set up for the fights. The weather was tough, it was in the 90′s and humid, I can only imagine what it was like for the fighters. I was setup ringside with my back to the scoreboard area, which gave me empty seats to shoot at, but did allow the famous Yankee Stadium facade to fill the top of my frame. I’ll take that trade off since once the sun fell, the empty seats would not be visible anyway.

The first few bouts were tough, as we were shooting directly into the sun, but if you kept the facade as the top of the frame, you could avoid it and it made for some beautiful lighting.

As the sun dropped the lighting changed again, but was still superb in terms of boxing. The only problem, as the sun dropped the facade was no longer visible. Strangely it was not lit to show off the stadium highlights. We had a momentary glimpse of hope as a spotlight illuminated the facade directly across from me, but 20 minutes later it was gone for the night.

As the main event approached, the crowd of 22,000+ filed in to their seats, and while the co-feature of Vanes Martirosyan-Joe Greene didn’t exactly excite, the main event of Miguel Cotto and Yuri Foreman had a bit of everything.

The two fighters felt each other out early, with Foreman as usual relying on the jab/right hand combo, and Cotto trying to press the issue inside.

What was a bit surprising is Cotto, who looked great in the fight, was able to out jab Foreman in the early rounds, and was winning handily, when the bout even took a worse turn for Foreman.

Yuri Foreman while moving away from Cotto had his knee give out on him suddenly, and the fighter went crashing to the canvas. Rising moments later, and clearly in pain, the gutsy fighter told referee Arthur Mercante Jr. that he could fight on. Foreman’s knee gave out again in the round, and again he rose and fought through the pain.

The bout turned even stranger in the eighth round when a towel was suddenly thrown into the ring from the direction of Foreman’s corner, officials jumped into the ring while Foreman was angry and Cotto began to celebrate. Referee Mercante, grabbed the towel and started screaming for everyone to leave the ring. The ref is the only one who can stop a fight, and while the towel coming into the ring is a sign of surrender, the ref does not have to recognize it. Foreman wanted to fight on, and Mercante was going to make sure Foreman received the chance. After about a minute respite the bout resumed to the roar of those in attendance. Foreman still clearly in pain, survived the eighth.

Cotto continued to turn up the heat on Foreman who was now forced to stand and trade with the stronger fighter due to the injury. Cotto punished Foreman in the eighth and ninth, when a left hook to the body finally dropped Foreman to the canvas, and Mercante at that point rescued the courageous fighter from any more damage.


For Cotto, the impressive win puts him right back to the forefront of the boxing world, with plenty of options in bout the 147lb and 154lb divisions. For Foreman, he probably gained more exposure and fans in his first loss than he had in his previous 28 wins due to the tremendous character he showed in continuing on the injured leg, when most would have packed it up and went home.

As far as the Stadium, the event has to be considered a tremendous success for boxing. The atmosphere was electric, the fight was very good, and I would think the viewership was high, as even casual fans tuned in just to get a glimpse of what it was like to see boxing return to Yankee Stadium. It was a tremendous night in the Bronx, and I’m glad I was able to capture it first hand.

A full assortment of images from the night can be seen here. My work from the fight is also featured on the main page of Sportsshootertoday.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 7th, 2010 at 2:40 pm and is filed under Boxing Photography, Uncategorized and tagged with Arthur Mercante Jr, Boxing, Boxing Photography, Boxing Stock Photography, Bronx, HBO, HBO Boxing, Jae Sung Lee, Jorge Diaz, Miguel Cotto, Yankee Stadium, Yuri Foreman. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.